OICA, the venerable “Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d’Automobiles,” better known as the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, finally got around to finishing their 2009 World Ranking of Manufacturers by motor vehicle production. This list has very little surprises for the TTAC B&B who pinned our World’s Top Ten Automakers 2009 to the wall. Yet, there are some. Let’s see …
Two months ago, we predicted that “as far as the top 4 are concerned, we do not expect any changes in position” when the final OICA list comes out. TTAC and OICA agree: #1 remains Toyota, # 2 remains GM, #3 remains Volkswagen, #4 remains Ford (all except Toyota with a slightly different count than in their annual reports, but I guess a few hundred thousand units more or less don’t matter in the grand scheme of things.) We predicted that also: “Some companies gave OICA 2008 numbers that differ from what’s on their books and in their annual reports. Expect the shenanigans to continue.” They sure did.
From place 5 on down, the field is bunching up a bit, final numbers matter now. Hyundai kicked PSA off place 5, where we had them. Probably by counting KIA as theirs, which they did not do in the prior years. In their annual report, Hyundai has 3,106,178 units for 2009, on the OICA list, there are 4,645,776. Sorry, PSA! Creative bookkeeping!
FIAT, which had not made our Top Ten list, found some more cars for OICA, and kicked Suzuki from 9 to 10. Suzuki had reported to OICA the same number they had in their annual report (with a tiny difference of 4 units.) That’s what you get for being honest. Fiat’s miraculous resurrection of lost sales kicked Renault off the number 10 position they had on TTAC’s list.
One oddity for number nerds: Volvo is counted separately in the OICA list, with 105,873 units sold. Why in the world did Volvo not count them for 2009? Ford owned Volvo in 2009, they still own them until the Geely deal is closed. There is such a big gap between #3 Volkswagen and #4 Ford that the Volvo sales would not have changed anything. It still is odd. It may be the only time where a manufacturer reported less to OICA than what they were entitled to.
OICA Top 50 Car Manufacturers
by production (total vehicles)
| Rank | Group | Total |
| 1 | TOYOTA | 7,234,439 |
| 2 | G.M. | 6,459,053 |
| 3 | VOLKSWAGEN | 6,067,208 |
| 4 | FORD | 4,685,394 |
| 5 | HYUNDAI | 4,645,776 |
| 6 | PSA | 3,042,311 |
| 7 | HONDA | 3,012,637 |
| 8 | NISSAN | 2,744,562 |
| 9 | FIAT | 2,460,222 |
| 10 | SUZUKI | 2,387,537 |
| 11 | RENAULT | 2,296,009 |
| 12 | DAIMLER | 1,447,953 |
| 13 | CHANGAN | 1,425,777 |
| 14 | B.M.W. | 1,258,417 |
| 15 | MAZDA | 984,520 |
| 16 | CHRYSLER | 959,070 |
| 17 | MITSUBISHI | 802,463 |
| 18 | BAIC | 684,534 |
| 19 | TATA | 672,045 |
| 20 | DONGFENG | 663,262 |
| 21 | FAW | 650,275 |
| 22 | CHERY | 508,567 |
| 23 | FUJI | 491,352 |
| 24 | BYD | 427,732 |
| 25 | SAIC | 347,598 |
| 26 | ANHUI JIANGHUAI | 336,979 |
| 27 | GEELY | 330,275 |
| 28 | ISUZU | 316,335 |
| 29 | BRILLIANCE | 314,189 |
| 30 | AVTOVAZ | 294,737 |
| 31 | GREAT WALL | 226,560 |
| 32 | MAHINDRA | 223,065 |
| 33 | SHANGDONG KAIMA | 169,023 |
| 34 | PROTON | 152,965 |
| 35 | CHINA NATIONAL | 120,930 |
| 36 | VOLVO | 105,873 |
| 37 | CHONGQING LIFAN | 104,434 |
| 38 | FUJIAN | 103,171 |
| 39 | KUOZUI | 93,303 |
| 40 | SHANNXI AUTO | 79,026 |
| 41 | PORSCHE | 75,637 |
| 42 | ZIYANG NANJUN | 72,470 |
| 43 | GAZ | 69,591 |
| 44 | NAVISTAR | 65,364 |
| 45 | GUANGZHOU AUTO | 62,990 |
| 46 | PACCAR | 58,918 |
| 47 | CHENZHOU JI’AO | 51,008 |
| 48 | QINGLING | 50,120 |
| 49 | HEBEI ZHONGXING | 48,173 |
| 50 | ASHOK LEYLAND | 47,694 |
Ashok Leyland? Any relation to British Leyland? If so, do they want to admit to it?
Yes, and they only make commercial trucks. I suspect the BL truck connection isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
How are all the JV cars counted? For example, who gets credit for a Chinese-built Buick? GM? SAIC? Both?
They have a sweetheart deal:
GM can book the numbers as theirs, SAIC can book the profits as theirs.
The 250k VW gap is mostly from a difference between sales numbers (as reported by VW) and OICA numbers, is that correct?
That would at least make sense, as their 2008 OICA numbers were about 200k bigger than their reported sales in 2008. Seems like a lot of cars spent Christmas 2008 on a lot somewhere, just waiting for the AWP… ;)
EDIT: And whats the deal with the Commercial Vehicles numbers published there? According to the VW fiscal report for ’09, Scania produced 35k heavy trucks, which aren’t counted in VWs number? And the VW LCV brand sold double the cars stated by OICA, so I assume they aren’t counting the smallest ones. Which however makes me doubt Fiats number, since they apparently are counting all of them as LCVs?
Oh, looking at the Commercial Numbers I can solve a mystery: Ford apparently has counted the Volvo numbers as their own, because the published Volvo numbers are all commercials, meaning its got to be Volvo Trucks, incl. Renault, Mack, etc.
Thank you! The TTAC Agatha Christie Award to you!
Why are Renault and Nissan counted separately? Aren’t they part of the same alliance, so to speak? Ditto with Fiat and Chrysler..
OICA tracks manufacturers, not alliances.
The shocking headline to me would be “Peugeot-Citroen (PSA) outsells Honda Worldwide”. I think most Americans would find this impossible to believe. PSA is also the only of the top 13 manufacturers to not have a US presence. Peugeot, would you please come back (and bring your funky Pininfarina designs with you)?
It’s surprising to see Mazda above Chrysler, and Suzuki above both of them. It’s easy to forget that all of the other world markets can add up to some big numbers.
Poor Chrysler…
They did it to themselves. Like seeing a drug addict on the street, I find it very hard to have any sympathy whatsoever.
If Chrysler logged the sales they had in the year of the “merger of equals”, they would be in the top ten.
Mr. Allpar, that table is related to 2009 (or the year of carmageddon).
And sadly is going smaller. Let’s hope they get bigger with this new owner.
The thing is, their brands will most likely disappear in a lot of countries, which in the end will benefit Fiat and not Chrysler.
In any case, the products they’re launching look promising. I saw the GC-derived new Dodge SUV interior spy-shots at allpar and it rocks.
If the new Sebring/Avenger are going to look half that good, their reputation will surely go up from the toilet.
Suzuki is perfectly poised to take advantage of the booming Asian market, despite its missteps in America.
Mazda’s numbers may look good… but they’d probably be much happier if Ford retook its ownership stake.
@Bertel, with regard to the discrepancy to the annual reports (for example, VW is 6.31M in the annual report vs 6.07M in the OICA figures) is because the OICA reports production — and annual reports generally report sales.
Most manufacturers slowed down production in early 2009 to run down inventories. VW’s figures, for example, indicate an inventory reduction of 240K units.
The 2010 figures should not show as large discrepancies.
Where are the Iranian car companies or are they all include as jv?